Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31398341-20170409101440/@comment-5427970-20170702194728

Allofyou wrote: Disagree on Escavalier.

Mostly due to competition with Scizor. While it's true that Escavalier has more attack power than Scizor, Scizor is very effective in maintaining offensive momentum, like when predicting incoming fire types or any pokemon that Scizor cannot beat, it can use U-turn to change to the pokemon that can deal with them. To illustrate clearly : Scizor predicting incoming Heatran, use U-turn and change to water types. Not to mention U-turn is relatively powerful as well. While Escavalier suffers from low speed, Scizor has a usable speed and Technician boosted Bullet Punch (priority). Scizor has Roost as well.

Escavalier main niche is better bulk and Assault Vest set. Mostly, it is good for tanking (mostly special) hits and beat them back. However, lacking recovery move is a problem for tanks. In most aspects, I cannot see how it can match up with Scizor. While its true Scizor is a lot more tricky, (Just before, when predicting incoming Heatran, Escavalier can actually do better and OHKO it with a drill run once the tutor is out), It really isnt as bulky or has the stronger bug STAB with Megahorn, meaning it will do less damage overall with movesets as well as attack stats. The use of Swarm aswell can make it a lot more deadly than Scizor. Scizor has to rely on bullet punch and its defensive bulk when against faster pokemon, but ultimately it hasnt got as much bulk as escavalier does.

Scizors speed is 65...and while that is much faster than escavalier, it certainly isnt outspeeding anything that is both faster than Escavalier and really a good threat in the meta. Even Heatran outspeeds a non invested Scizor.

Roost on Scizor isnt really so common, cause people want as much coverage as they can get with PRIMARILY a physical attacker rather than a tank. Escavalier's bulk isnt the main deal with it, its the 135 Attack that it can harness ALONG with the good bulk on the other two stats. So it basically has more physical attack and more bulk all around than a base Scizor.

Scizors Bullet punch aswell, while being able to damage a lot of those fairies really quick, No one would keep it in in their right mind. Name me a situation where Scizors bullet punch is more useful than Escavaliers regular Iron Head, when the opposing pokemon is at full health. And like i said, Escavalier is an absolute monster in Trick Room teams.

In summary

Escavalier:

+More Physical Attack

+More Bulk, especially in special defense.

+Stronger Bug STAB Move in Megahorn

+Works much better in Trick Rooms

+Less Seen, and therefore less predictable

Scizor (Base):

+Faster (But cmon, still at a measly 65, the difference shows who you can rely on more in a battle between Scizor/Escavalier vs a pokemon > 65)

+Technician+ Priority STAB in Bullet Punch

+Access to Roost

Now i wont be that girl, Mega Scizor does of course outclass Escavalier, but thats the mega, i dont expect an RU pokemon like Escavalier to be able to overtake a pokemon that works in the Uber tier, but i genuinely believe it is the superior bug/steel type over base Scizor, so it can therefore dent just as hard in the metagame